Chocolate Factory
by C.B. Magique
Summary: Ichigo is making chocolates for Masaya on Valentine's Day but needs someone to test them. Lucky Ryou is on hand when you need him the most. But he has his own agenda this Valentine's Day. Fluffeh


A little fic I wrote impromptu for **Forever Mesmerised**. The first and maybe the only RxI I will ever write. It's a late Valentine's Day fic for the pairing. Born from a very random plot bunny and mindlessly fluffy.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew... but if I did I'd make Masaya gay because he soooooo gives off that impression.

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Momomiya Ichigo was not very good at making things and chocolate was no exception. She messed up when setting the mould, she put in a heap of sugar (thinking it would taste sweeter but it just tasted awful) or she didn't mix the ingredients thoroughly enough, making interesting yet dubious patterns in the final product. Then, of course, there was the task of decorating the chocolate, which – given her limited artistic skills – she wasn't very proficient at either.

So finally, after hours of trying, Ichigo had created a half-decent (only a little lumpy but quite wonky) looking chocolate for her beloved Aoyama. Now she could gift-wrap it in a special box with a little pink ribbon- wait. She had to taste test it first. It would be no good to give a Valentine's Day present that tasted terrible or, even worse, gave the receiver food poisoning. But if there was a chance that she might poison herself with this she didn't want to risk it. She needed a guinea pig. Spotting a particular person walking past Café Mew-Mew's kitchen with their hands lazily clasped behind their head, Ichigo knew exactly who that person was going to be.

"Hey, Ryou! Could you help me for a minute?" she asked sweetly.

Ryou paused and looked into the kitchen, noticing the mess all over the bench and the stove and a few brown things that looked suspiciously like cat faeces. He immediately became wary. "What do you want now?"

"I need you to do a taste test for me," Ichigo explained, glancing at the lumpy globs of chocolate in front of her, all of them failed moulds. Since they and the final, somewhat-perfected product had all come from the same batch, she could assume that if they were safe to eat the gift was safe too.

"No thanks. I don't want to get food poisoning."

Ichigo gulped. Ryou must have been on to her. "I'm not going to give you food poisoning! I just want you to taste them and see if they're nice enough to be a gift."

"Then why don't you ask Keiichiro? He's the chef here."

"Well... Keiichiro isn't available right now."

"Speaking of which, why do you have the spare time to do this when he doesn't? Why aren't you working?"

"H-hey! He gave me permission since this is really, really, really important to me. I'm trying to make Valentine's chocolate for Masaya this year and I want it to taste right."

"Again? Ichigo you suck at this. Why don't you just do something you're good at?" Ryou asked, walking into the kitchen and casting a sceptical glance at the failed specimens.

"What is this? An interrogation?" Ichigo huffed. He must be trying to avoid helping me, she thought. "I just really want to do this. Chocolates are the essential Valentine's Day gift."

"If the quintessential gift matters more then maybe he's not the right guy."

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

Ichigo pouted. "This is the only time of the year that I get to do this. It's special because I made them so I feel like I'm giving them straight from my heart. Will you please help me, Ryou?"

"Not if those chocolates taste as bad as they look."

"Please?" Ichigo pleaded, giving him her best puppy pout.

Finally, the blond sighed and gave in. He picked up the only half-decent looking chocolate in the batch and popped it in his mouth, crunching on the cold sweet. Ichigo glared at him.

"Why you! That was the one I was going to give to Masaya! You were supposed to taste the other ones!" she whined. "It's going to take me forever to get another one to look right like that one."

"Don't worry, you've already had heaps of practice," Ryou assured her, licking chocolate off the corner of his mouth, which Ichigo found disturbingly seductive. Recalling past images of him topless in the evening light made her go rigid and brought a vibrant blush to her face. She turned around stiffly, hoping Ryou hadn't seen her blush like that. Even with her back turned he could still see the redness of her ears and the back of her neck but he wouldn't tell her that... at least not this time.

"Is there something the matter?" he said, feigning cluelessness.

"Is it good?" Ichigo squeaked out. Ryou blinked. "I mean the chocolate."

Oh, right. That's right... he was supposed to be tasting the chocolate. He smiled, thinking of a great idea. He picked a round lump of chocolate that looked the least disturbing out of all of the others and said: "Why don't you taste it for yourself?"

If it was possible, Ichigo blushed two shades redder, partly in anger. She spun around and opened her mouth to reprimand him for being as bad a pervert as Quiche but instead a small piece of chocolate was pushed between her lips and a finger held them closed. Her chest grew warm with the feeling of his flesh against hers so intimately. He took his finger away from her slowly, smirking.

"How does it taste?"

Ichigo stared at him and it was a moment before she realised the chocolate was melting on her tongue, so she chewed and swallowed it. "It's... pretty good, I guess." It tasted like a normal chocolate – nothing very special. On the plus side, it didn't taste like poison. Yet her heart was pumping rapidly for some reason.

"B-by the way," she stuttered, "what was that all about?"

Ryou caught her chin between his index finger and his thumb and tilted her head up to look at him. "Ichigo, you know I like you."

He leaned in closer. Ichigo's heart beat faster, causing her ears and tail to pop out but she barely noticed. She closed her eyes, anticipating what was probably about to come. Her body throbbed with warmth and tingled all over from her toes to her fingertips; a nerve-wracking feeling as though she was expecting to get an electric shock.

Ryou pecked her on the cheek and pulled away. Ichigo opened her eyes and stared stupidly, feeling cheated. He turned away pretending to wipe his lip when he was really just hiding a dusty, pink blush. "I'll expect a White Day present next month. I don't just give my kisses away like that."

Ichigo came back to her senses and growled at him. "Well so do I! You stole my Valentine's Day present to Masaya!"

"But you're not going to give it to him anymore, are you?" Ryou chuckled, putting his hands in his pockets and striding out of the kitchen in full confidence. "Oh, and make sure you clean up the kitchen when you're done."

The door swung closed and he was quickly out of sight. Ichigo watched him leave before turning back to what was left of her chocolates. Even though they probably were edible none of them looked it. With a sighed she gathered them all up and put them back in the pan to be melted down again. This time there was no rush. She had a whole month ahead of her to perfect her moulding technique.


End file.
